Whale Talk and Chris Crutcher--Challenged Too Often
Chris Crutcher is probably one of the most challenged contemporary authors in the United States right now. He is also one of the most real, most caring, and most intelligent people I’ve ever met. I have been lucky to chat with him on several different occasions.
I read Fahrenheit 451 as part of my school's summer reading program when I was 16 years old. The story is set in the future, where books have become illegal, and America employs firemen to find books and burn them. Author Ray Bradbury provides a convincing and relatable near-future, making the book terrific as science-fiction alone. In this future city, the trains are pushed by currents of air, the fire department uses a lethal robot to help it track criminals, and televisions have grown to wall-size.
Have you ever wondered what you would do if you could go back in time and do a day over again? Sam Kingston has just had a strange day. She got up for school, met her friends for the ride to the campus, collected a lot of roses for Cupid Day, went to an awesome party, and died in a horrible accident on the way home. Sam Kingston is dead- or is she? When she wakes up the next morning, Sam is almost convinced it was a really bad dream. Worse still, Sam realizes that she has rewound the clock, and is starting the same day over again. What if she changed a few things?
My name is Kathy, and I’ve worked for Mid-Continent for 25 years. I can truly say that time flies when you’re having fun! Here are five books I love: two all-time favorites, and three that I’ve read and enjoyed more recently.
Jeff Winston has had an average life. He and his wife Linda haven’t been able to have children, but they have spent the last twenty years together. In 1988, when Linda calls Jeff at work to talk, Jeff suddenly suffers a heart-attack. He feels the excruciating pain; he feels as if he’s fading away. Then, he feels himself breathe into nothingness and death, but how can he feel if he is dead?
Gwen Cooper had every intention of saying no to the veterinarian who asked her to adopt a three week old stray kitten with no eyes. She was fresh off a bad breakup, working a low paying job, and living rent free in a friend’s bedroom. She already had two cats, and was afraid another addition would make her the ‘crazy cat lady’ of the neighborhood. However, it was love at first sight, and the kitten was named Homer.
Sookie has a gift: she can read minds. She considers her telepathy a disability because many of the townspeople consider her crazy. She doesn’t date much because of her gift (or curse). She stays with her grandmother, and works at a bar called Merlotte’s. Her life is routine until Bill Compton steps into the bar one night, a vampire more than a century old. The events of the night take an unexpected turn for the worst for the vampire. Sookie rescues him from a couple who are trying to drain him for his blood to sell on the black market.
Biographical Fiction - Oxymoron or Literary Genre?
I used to think that biographical fiction was an oxymoron ranking right up there with icy hot and jumbo shrimp. I was distrustful of the genre, and was uncomfortable with authors injecting fiction into fact.